Read Online Lady Farquhar's Butterfly by Beverley Eikli - Free Book Online Page B

of
course, accept, dearest.’ Aunt Catherine lay her mittened hand upon
Olivia’s shoulder briefly, before taking a seat on the sofa,
opposite. Her myopic blue eyes blinked rapidly. ‘He is quite set
upon it, you know.’
    ‘Should
Olivia’s feelings not take precedence?’ Aunt Eunice’s tone was dry,
as she took a seat beside her sister. ‘Let the girl alone,
Catherine, and stop trying to force a match if Olivia’s feelings
are not in accord with the reverend’s.’
    ‘Marriage to
Mr Kirkman will enable Olivia to be reunited with Julian,’ Aunt
Catherine argued. ‘He is guaranteed success. As a Godly, pious man
he has the character required.’
    ‘I’m hardly
likely to do better. Certainly not in my current situation.’ Olivia
put down the book and sighed. The lines of worry etched on her
aunts’ faces reinforced the pain she had caused them.
    She was no
longer an impulsive child. It was time to act as an adult, and in
everyone’s best interests.
    If she could
only tame her spirit to obey.
    Aunt Eunice
sounded gloomy. ‘Far better to remain alone, Olivia, than subjugate
yourself to a man who makes your repentance and submission his
mission.’
    ‘Sister!’
    ‘I’ve
considered that.’ Olivia cut through Aunt Catherine’s predictable
admonition. ‘Yet if I cannot get Julian back any other way—’
    ‘Mr Kirkman is
not the only Godly, pious man on the planet. Have patience,
Olivia.’ There was an edge to Aunt Eunice’s voice. ‘Can’t you wait
until your heart is in accord with one of the many men who fit this
broad description? Max Atherton is not the fiend his cousin was.
You said so yourself. He’d surely grant you the latitude to find a
man you preferred, even one whose Godliness fell a little short of
the reverend’s.’
    ‘And what else
do you know of Max Atherton, Olivia?’ Aunt Catherine asked. ‘You
spent two days with him and his sister. Can you imagine how anxious
we were, despite the assurances you wrote us?’
    Olivia
shrugged. It was too painful to dwell on Max and all that might
have been had circumstances been different. ‘Men of integrity,’ she
said, ‘tend not to find women like me to their taste, Aunt Eunice.
I fear that Mr Atherton will need to be doubly satisfied that my
husband is a Godly reformer.’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘Mr Kirkman
undoubtedly fits that description.’
    ‘Good Lord,
Olivia, that is not reason enough to marry him.’ Aunt Eunice
scowled. ‘You talk as if you were so sunk in vice no decent man
would have you in the same room with their wives.’
    ‘They
wouldn’t.’
    ‘But if they
knew the truth—’
    Olivia stopped
her Aunt Catherine from continuing. ‘Who is going to tell them?’
She swallowed, the old bitterness banishing her blitheness. ‘Who,
in the world, is going to champion me?’
    ‘Well,
somebody should! Mr Atherton should, though it sounds as if your
appeal fell on deaf ears. Your reputation has been tarnished by
nothing but rumours.’ Aunt Eunice tried to sound dismissive, but
Olivia heard the defensiveness in her tone. She suddenly felt very
protective.
    ‘Aunt Eunice,’
she said, gently, ‘you know as well as I that the moment I’m
introduced to anyone remotely respectable they won’t see me as Lady
Farquhar.’ She shuddered as she recalled the shame Lucien had
heaped upon her when he’d made her perform at his debauched
gatherings. ‘They will think only of Lady Farquhar’s Butterfly.’
She had started her speech defiantly. Now her voice dropped away.
‘What man is brave enough to get beyond that stumbling block? I
shall answer the reverend’s question in the affirmative tomorrow.
There can be no other way.’

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
    ‘MAX, YOU
PROMISED you would accompany us to church this morning.’ Amelia
looked cross as she marshalled her boys, and her husband, into an
orderly line before the front door. ‘You’ll be late! Why, you are
still dressed for riding!’
    Max hesitated
at the top of the